A Pro-Biden group, which operates with the blessing of the White House, plans to raise unlimited funds and grant anonymity to donors as it prepares to promote and protect the president’s agenda from the outside.
Why is it important?: By not limiting anonymous contributions, the group, called Building Back Together, will make it easier to raise money, ahead of its scheduled launch next month to defend Biden’s policies, including its 1.9 aid package trillions of dollars.
- “We will work in collaboration with existing groups working to achieve these same goals,” a statement from the organization read.
- “We will also leave it in the hands of individual donors if they publicly publish their donations.”
- The group, which will be organized as a 501 (c) (4) non-profit organization, will impose some fundraising limits: it will not accept contributions from corporations, registered lobbyists or the oil and gas industry.
The general picture: The external group is, in part, a facsimile of a former democratic organization, The Common Purpose Project, which was created by President Obama’s allies to coordinate the progressive movement early in Obama’s term.
- However, Building Back Together differs from the Obama model in one crucial aspect: that group limited contributions to $ 50,000 and revealed their names.
- But President Trump’s allies failed to comply with those conventions when they established their groups four years ago and raised unlimited funds from anonymous donors.
- Democrats took note.
- “We are following the rules of the current system and will remain at the same level as many other external groups working to affect the leadership of this country,” the statement said.
Deepen: The White House will have no operational control over the new group, which will make some means of payment, both digital and broadcast, as it tries to define the terms of the debate over Biden’s policies.
- “He has a very specific lane and a very specific role and he can’t do the job that state parties do and he can’t coordinate with state parties,” said the last White House chief of staff, Jen O’Malley Dillon, in the Wall Street Journal last month, first reported on the group.
Between lines: Building Back Together will feature former Biden campaign aides and longtime Democratic strategists.
- Danielle Melfi, Wisconsin state director of the Biden campaign, will serve as executive director.
- Stephanie Cutter, who co-founded Precision Strategies with O’Malley Dillon, has played a key role.
- Patrick Bonsignore, who ran paid media for Biden, and Matt Barreto, one of Biden’s pollsters, will also participate.
- Addisu Demissie, who helped produce the Democratic National Convention with Cutter, is also part of the team.
Be smart: Democrats are willing to face criticism for abandoning some of Obama’s transparency rules to ensure his party maintains the White House.